Spiegelman, A. (1980–1991). Maus, serialized in raw. New York: Pantheon, 1986.

Raw magazine (published from 1980 to 1991) was the premier English-language showcase for avant- garde and international comics in the 1980s and a harbinger of the graphic novel boom of the early 21st century. It was coedited by future New Yorker art editor Francoise Mouly and her husband, vet- eran underground cartoonist Art Spiegelman, whose seminal graphic novel Maus was first serialized in Raw. Raw promoted the idea of comics as a se- rious adult literary and artistic form by publishing formally innovative contemporary comics, translat- ing the work of established international cartoonists, and reprinting works by early 20th-century artists. Its wide-ranging subject matter and styles high- lighted the medium’s versatility, and its attention to design and printing brought an art-world sensibility to comics. Moreover, through its forays into book publishing, Raw influenced the developing concept of the graphic novel as an artistically and commer- cially viable form.

Raw magazine emerged from coeditor Mouly’s experiments in printing and her burgeoning interest in comics as well as from Spiegelman’s work with the underground quarterly Arcade (1975-1976) and his dissatisfaction with existing venues for publishing comics for adults. Before the former architecture student Mouly discovered Arcade and met Spiegel- man, she had searched in vain for the English equivalent of European magazines like Pilote, Spirou, and Metal Hurant that featured comics. After moving from France.to America and marrying Spiegelman in 1977, Mouly learned printing at a Brooklyn Vo- cational School while doing freelance coloring work for Marvel Comics. She bought her own printing press, and shortly afterward, Mouly began publish- ing an annual Soho map that subsidized her other early projects under the “Raw Bopks” imprint. As the genre-oriented sci-fi/fantasy magazine Heavy Metal began to publish French comics in English translation in the late 1970s, Mouly likewise set out to introduce European comics to an American audi- ence. Despite Spiegelman’s earlier frustrations with editing the underappreciated Arcade, by January 1980, Mouly had persuaded him to work on at least one issue of a new magazine of comics, graphics, and illustrated writing.